Those old enough will remember offices filing cabinets stretching from floor to ceiling, dividers upon dividers separating important commercial operation documentation and room after room packed full of boxes of business accounts information. As much of a gargantuan waste of space and counterproductive as this may seem in the digital age, for decades this was standard business practice.

Thankfully today this has changed. We have the technology to be free of being bogged down by reams and reams of paper. From meticulous document scanning API OCR to comprehensive file saving thanks to the Cloud, that dreaded mountain of paper has slowly been conquered.

So, if you’re looking for the best apps to help you digitise your documents, look no further. These apps will help you get organised – and make your professional life so much easier.

Office Lens

Developed by Microsoft, Office Lens is an efficient, responsive, easy and simple document scanning app that features advanced OCR.

Perfect for scanning a wealth of office documentation, including documents, whiteboards, images, even business cards, Office Lens is one of the preferred document scanning apps available today.

The app can be easily integrated into different programs, including Apple’s Photo Library and Mail. Images can or exported to a PDF and saved with just a few taps of the screen. Although, Office Lens is not designed with a receipt scanning API, the program is nonetheless capable of scanning a wealth of documents.

The real strength of Office Lens is that it can export most of the Microsoft Office Suite of apps, including Word, Outlook, OneNote, PowerPoint and OneDrive making it easy for you to send scanned documents from anywhere you’re able to access your Microsoft account.

Adobe Scan

Known as one of the simplest apps, Adobe Scan has the distinction of being one of the more favoured document scanning API OCR programs.

The image filtering and auto-cropping and re-aligning features are some of the most advanced available, transforming an otherwise misshapen image into a clear and crisp image. The app also features in-built auto capture OCR receipt and document facilities and allows for basic editing of scanned images.

There is, however, one drawback. Users must be an Adobe Creative Cloud subscriber to use the app. However, Adobe do offer varying membership plans, with the cheapest costing £9.98 a month and the most expensive costing £73.93 a month. For this price, users get access to Adobe Creative Suite and a collection of apps – and they even throw in 10 free stock images! The price you’re willing to pay really depends on the extent you intend to use the app.

Dropbox

Convenient and powerful Dropbox for iOS is an OCR receipt and document scanning app that once you try, you’ll wonder how you ever got along without it. The app automatically recognises and scans documents, allowing you to store valuable data on your iPhone.

Not only that, Dropbox has editing and cropping features, allowing you to hone in on an element with ease and even add a colour correction filter. We all know that multi-page document scanning isn’t exactly hassle-free; Dropbox makes it easy to organise pages within a file with its drag and drop function. Receipts and documents can be saved as either pdf or png files.

The attraction of Dropbox is that users can do all their scanning and organising in the app. All you’ll need is a Dropbox business account. Try linking it to your personal account to reap the benefits of both!

These are just three document scanning apps that you can use with an iPhone. Try one today and see how you can streamline business processes, making your life much easier!